Anybody Ever Sold Cedar Trees?

[dressagetraks]

Not as Christmas trees, but as wood.

I was back in my back 40 this past week, mentally upgrading fence, installing goats, and seeing it in its eventual someday, and I once again noted my extreme crop of cedar trees back there. Far as I'm concerned, they all need to go anyway. They are some sizable cedar trees. Trunks on several of the bigger ones are a foot or more in diameter.

I was thinking of cutting them and having a cedar bonfire or four or five when I thought of the wood. Are these marketable for wood, like oaks? Anybody done this before? I want them gone, with or without $$$, but would of course prefer with $$$ if possible. ;)

I say not Christmas trees because these are on the back of my property, with limited access, with serious terrain (I have what I call Cougar Rock Jr. back there for training the Future Endurance Toy, once the underbrush is cleared out). These are much larger than Christmas trees I've seen outside of businesses, first of all, and second, it would be hard to extract a full tree from back there without bending or damaging the outer branches. Extracting a log, especially a sectioned log, would be easier.

[Bluey]

Where are you located?
In NM they cut them and sell them for fence posts, truckloads of them at the time.

[birdsong]

Wow...sell them for the wood. Do you have a local sawmill that might be interested???? Don't burn them!!

[Cloverbarley]

It depends on what species of cedar your trees are as to how much, if anything, a lumber contractor would pay you. I own probably around 35-40 acres of woodland however they are mainly very old mature Eastern Red Cedars so aren't particularly desirable trees. If you have Eastern White Cedar however, they are sought after by most lumber companies (I know this as I was looking to get rid of some of mine too :rolleyes:). Do be aware though that when they come in to fell the trees, they do make a heck of a mess and it takes the land a fair while to recover from it but you will make a tidy profit from the wood.

[dressagetraks]

Here is a sample cedar tree (note horse to keep it HR). This one was picked up by a mini tornado last year and thrown cleanly 107 feet INTO the pasture, fortunately missing all horses in that same pasture. It was over 30 feet tall and about 18 inches at the base, was fully healthy prior to its sudden demise. Is this white or red cedar? I have dozens like this, although this is the only one I've ever seen yanked up and thrown. That day still gives me shivers. It was airborne - no branches or scruff or blow marks, 107 feet of clean toss - and judging the orientation in which it landed compared to the orientation in which it had stood originally, it was spinning as it flew across the pasture. Horses were fine. I was freaked. :eek:

It made a nice bonfire. Hard to get started, but once it was started, it burned away and was quite aromatic. :yes:

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk8/dressagetraks/Toccata%20and%20the%20Tree/FormerSiteofThrownTree2.jpg

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk8/dressagetraks/Toccata%20and%20the%20Tree/ThrownTree-Trunk.jpg

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk8/dressagetraks/Toccata%20and%20the%20Tree/ThrownTree2.jpg

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk8/dressagetraks/Toccata%20and%20the%20Tree/ThrownTree3.jpg

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk8/dressagetraks/Toccata%20and%20the%20Tree/ToccataStillCheckingOuttheTree.jpg

[Bluey]

That one looks like our juniper cedar trees.
They are really an invasive species and around here, they are chained down.

The wood is really too hard for milling so, other than fence post, not much use, other than some for maybe lining closets or so, as a specialty wood.

Have you asked your country agent what you have there and what they do with them, if they have any possible commercial use?

[Cloverbarley]

Oh my! Yes I can see why you wouldn't mind getting rid of some of them.

I think the same as Bluey, your tree looks like it is an Eastern Red Cedar, which as Bluey says is not actually a cedar at all, it's a juniper. Fence posts, that's really all people use them for, they're not much use for anything else. I wish they were as I have thousands of them.

[RiverBendPol]

I have a relative who makes the most beautiful garden gates, trellises, benches, etc. out of gnarly, curvey cedar branches. I am searching my property for some cedar trees so he can make a wedding arbor for my daughter's wedding next fall. Where are you? Anywhere near Southern Maine? :winkgrin:

[dressagetraks]

I'm in Missouri, unfortunately. Kinda far from Maine (although I have a horse who came from there).

[ReSomething]

Around here the Eastern Reds are in demand for fence posts. They seem to have fair value but like another poster said logging is very messy and may not be worth it to you. Our seller cut down almost all the single stemmed fence post sized ones and took them with him - now we have the huge bush kind, which are great bird habitat but otherwise kind of a pain.

[Bluey]

Around here the Eastern Reds are in demand for fence posts. They seem to have fair value but like another poster said logging is very messy and may not be worth it to you. Our seller cut down almost all the single stemmed fence post sized ones and took them with him - now we have the huge bush kind, which are great bird habitat but otherwise kind of a pain.

Be sure if you have someone clear your land, that the contract specify exactly all that is to happen, the kinds of insurance they need to carry, where they have access to the trees and how they have to restore and reseed whatever land they disturb.
If you want all trees removed, or all but a few groves for wildlife, state esactly that and which ones in the contract.:yes:

Get a good contract attorney, that generally can be found under real estate specialist attorneys, to go over the contract.
You don't want to run your tree buyer off with unreasonable demands, but you want to protect your interest, a fine line to walk.:)

[Fantastic]

We had a dense grove of fir and hemlock on approx 5+ acres of our property logged back in 2002(?) so we could excavate for the indoor arena. Some of the wood was not so healthy because of overgrowth/lack of sun from overgrowth/illness. I got 3 quotes: 1st from a freaky pro logger - he wanted 40%. 2nd from an overly hungry and desperate guy - 30%. 3rd from out excavator - they wanted 35%. We went with out excavator (two guys). They went through and marked trees that needed to come down, and then I walked through and approved or disapproved which trees were to be cut. They coordinated everything with the truckers and used their track hoe to load the logging trucks. Some of the trees were old growth and 4' in diameter. We made 14K, which went back into the exacating bill.

I'd recommend tracking down any lumber companies in your or neighboring states and see if they can direct to towards people who cut the trees down. Negotiate the percentage the logger will get. Get serval quotes.

Oh yeah, a few days into the project, the freaky pro logger guy came storming onto our property. He bypassed the house and drove down the new logging/future arena driveway and made a b-line for the excavators. Apparently, Mr. Freaky Pro Logger Guy was drunk and PO'd that the excavators were hired over him! Guess he figured he needed cuss them out or sumthin.:eek:

[YankeeLawyer]

Just an FYI, now is a pretty poor time to be selling any trees. We have some land with very nice hardwood trees on it and recently decided to hold off on any logging because the prices for wood - even desirable hardwood - are very low right now.

Also, regarding burning cedar, you might want to look into whether that is safe. I seem to recall reading that it can cause trouble breathing or other problems because of the strong fumes.

[TheRedFox]

The sap in those trees burns very very hot and often times causes the wood to explode when burned which can be very dangerous. I've seen people burn pine logs in their fireplace which causes that sap and tar to adhere to the walls of the chimney and cause the whole chimney to catch on fire. I hope you can find a quick and safe solution to your problem :-)

[CatOnLap]

Here on the wet coast, real cedar is never burned in fireplaces or woodstoves unless you want a chimney fire. The logs do contain pockets of sap and gas which can explode and blow the door off a woodstove, the wood burns extremely quickly, so a log will only last an hour anyway, and the sap content will line a chimney with sap and soot that later catches a chminey fire. Western red cedar is used for roof shakes, fencing, decking and garden furniture, Yellow cedar is often more sought after for furntiture and fine building. But mostly we cut it down and make bonfires. Useless invasive tree that clogs drainage. I planted a line of cedars outside my round pen. 5 years later we dug the round pen up and the cedar roots have reached underneath the footing more than 50 feet, completely clogging the drainage line on the OTHER SIDE of the round pen.

[pony grandma]

Do you have a local horse trial??? the smaller ones , if they are just scrub trees, can be donated for cross country fence decoration. let them come cut them for the donation.

[YankeeLawyer]

The sap in those trees burns very very hot and often times causes the wood to explode when burned which can be very dangerous. I've seen people burn pine logs in their fireplace which causes that sap and tar to adhere to the walls of the chimney and cause the whole chimney to catch on fire. I hope you can find a quick and safe solution to your problem :-)

Thanks - I knew there was some reason that burning cedar is a major no no.

[pony4me]

Even if the wood doesn't explode when burned, red cedar still gives off a lot of sparks, so it's not good for fireplace wood. Also I noticed from one of your photos that there was fencing material near the tree. We had a person out to our farm once to see if he would remove many of our red cedar trees. He didn't want any of them because he said that fencing or nails would damage his milling machinery. The only red cedar tree I've ever been able to give away was to a family who wanted to cut their own Christmas tree. With all the creative people here, maybe someone has a good suggestion. I have many, many extra red cedar trees.

[dressagetraks]

Thanks for the tip on fireplaces. I don't have one yet but will someday.

The thrown tree did come from a fence line, but it is one of the very few on a fence line. Most are open.

Mentioning fence posts gave me another idea. Could I make my own fence posts? Do fence posts require special treatment/preparation, or can you just stick a cedar log in the ground and call it one? And maybe I could do a DIY round pen out of them! Labor intensive, but I like the pricetag. :cool:

[Bluey]

That is a good idea, if you are handy with a chain saw, you can make you some good fence posts and stays out of the smaller, straight branches.

I have seen many yard fences made out of the smaller cedar posts, bark and all, here called "hairy posts".
The cattle and horses will chew the bark off eventually for you.
I have also seen round pens made out of them and they look very nice.
I have seen those in NM and SW TX ranches way out in nowhere country, where everything is very rustic.:)

[ReSomething]

. . .

Mentioning fence posts gave me another idea. Could I make my own fence posts? Do fence posts require special treatment/preparation, or can you just stick a cedar log in the ground and call it one? And maybe I could do a DIY round pen out of them! Labor intensive, but I like the pricetag. :cool:

Oh yeah, sure you could. As I said the fella that sold us this place cut down most of the cedars that were good sized for fence posts and took them with him. They definitely are rustic but right now the going rate on CL is between three and five dollars for about a six inch diameter by eight foot post - actually for the three dollar ones the post size is rather vague, the five dollar ones are six to nine inches in diameter, cut to your length, straight run.
They end up getting grey and kind of knotty, not what you want at a high end place maybe but a perfect use of the trees. Honestly I don't know if people dunk the ends in creosote first or not when they set them. I'll have to ask around.
I just hope they don't sprout - redwood trees will if conditions are just right.

[draftdriver]

Do be aware though that when they come in to fell the trees, they do make a heck of a mess and it takes the land a fair while to recover from it but you will make a tidy profit from the wood.

I had a horse logger in to do some post-Ice Storm 1998 cleanup in my cedar forest. Horse loggers do much less damage to the undergrowth and forest trails than many mechanical harvesting operations, especially if the ground is at all wet.

[harveyhorses]

The sap in those trees burns very very hot and often times causes the wood to explode when burned which can be very dangerous. I've seen people burn pine logs in their fireplace which causes that sap and tar to adhere to the walls of the chimney and cause the whole chimney to catch on fire. I hope you can find a quick and safe solution to your problem :-)

It can be pretty exciting in a bonfire. I had a burn pile going of just odds and ends, a friend came over and grabbed a big cedar log (which I was planning on cutting down for shelves) before I knew it she had tossed it on. Spent a few minutes trying to get it off the fire, gave that up and just watched from a distance. It would pop like a gunshot and send sparks everywhere. She tried to leave after about 10 minutes, 'Oh no this is your doing' (I had told her NOT to add anything to the blaze) It burned for a couple of hours before it stopped popping. I was happy not to call the fire department.
Fence posts!!